


in my veins

by knuffled (bigscary)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22808005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigscary/pseuds/knuffled
Summary: percy picks up a very drunk annabeth from a halloween party and experiences some intense yearning along the way
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 12
Kudos: 218





	in my veins

Percy rolled over with a groan and fumbled blindly in the dark for his vibrating phone. He pressed it against his ear, his voice heavy with sleep as he said, “Hello?”

“Percy?”

“Jason? What time is it?” he asked, sitting up.

“Uh, three in the morning?”

When Percy swore under his breath, Jason quickly said, “I know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s just that you know how I threw a Halloween Party tonight?”

“Yes,” grumbled Percy.

“Well, Annabeth got super drunk, like practically black out drunk, and someone needs to get her home. I would if I could, but I can’t leave a bunch of drunk teenagers alone at my house,” he said.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming,” Percy huffed, getting out of bed.

“Thanks man, I owe you one!” Jason said.

“I want your first born, Grace!” Percy yelled into the phone, but Jason had already hung up by then.

Percy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and grabbed his swimming sweatshirt and pulled it over his head before walking out the door. Jason lived close enough that he didn’t need to drive to his house, and he was too sleepy to drive anyways. When he got to Jason’s place, he could hear loud, thumping music from inside the house. Percy rang the doorbell and stepped back, wondering if anyone would be able to hear it over the music. But it was only a few seconds before the door opened and Jason, clad in a Captain America costume, gave him a tired smile.

He followed him inside the house, and Jason turned to him and said, “I think I saw her in the kitchen.”

Percy gave him a nod, and Jason smiled and lightly punched his shoulder as a token of gratitude. He rolled his eyes and left for the kitchen where he found Annabeth draped over a kitchen counter, dressed in a banana costume, with a beer in one hand. The sight alone was enough to make the trip over in the middle of the night worth it. There was no fucking way he was gonna let her live this down, that was for sure.

When he got to her, Percy gently shook her shoulders. “Annabeth? Annabeth, wake up,” he said softly.

She stirred and groaned before leaning back and fixating on him. “Percy!” Annabeth said with unabashed delight. “You came!”

“No, I’m just here to take you home,” he said.

Annabeth pouted, and he had to ignore how cute she looked if he wanted to actually get her home in a timely fashion. “I don’t wanna go home! Come on, Seaweed Brain, have a drink with me.”

Percy took the beer out of her reluctant hands and looped her arm over his neck so that she could let her rest her weight against him. “Annabeth, you know I don’t drink,” he said gently. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

She made a weak sound of protest but otherwise let him lead her out of Jason’s house. Percy tried to ignore the stench of alcohol on her, but the crescent-shaped scar on his right shoulder burned anyways, and he was suddenly grateful that she didn’t smell like stale cigarettes.

“Hey, why didn’t you come to the party?” she asked suddenly, her speech slurred.

“I already told you,” Percy said patiently. “I have a swim meet tomorrow morning remember?”

“Oh right!” Annabeth said. “I’m still not done making your sign.”

Warmth blossomed in his chest, and Percy couldn’t help smiling. “You don’t have to do that, you know,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Annabeth mumbled.

They walked together in silence for a while, and Percy felt happier than he’d felt in a long time. The stars were so bright, and Annabeth’s hair still smelled comfortingly like lemons and tickled his cheek. She was pressed up against him and made his face heat up a little. It was a little too intimate, not that Percy was complaining. He had to remind himself that this was just because she was drunk and he was helping her home. Still, he couldn’t help imagining if he’d be able to hold her like this if he was her boyfriend. The thought brought the familiar taste of melancholy to his mouth.

_Why do you always do this to yourself?_

Why did he always come up with these stupid scenarios about him and Annabeth that would never happen in a million years? It only hurt to think about, but he did it all the time. There were disembodied, phantasmal images in his head when he thought about her. He saw her sprawled on a bed, bathed in an afternoon sunlight streaming through half-drawn blinds, her honey-blonde hair fanned out across a pillow like threads of golden spider silk. He saw a bronze light illuminating half of her laughing face as she led him by the hand in a dark wood. He saw himself falling into an abyss and her desperately reaching out to him, but their fingers never touch. He saw them lying beside each other and staring up at the stars, talking until neither of them could physically keep their eyes open any longer. He saw himself waking up, tangled in her, and watching the morning sun cast its golden-bronze light on her face as the tide of her breathing washed him out to sea.

Suddenly, it hurt to breathe, and Percy felt hyperaware of Annabeth’s skin against his own. Vicious self-loathing churned in the pit of his stomach like acid when tears pricked his eyes.

_Great, now you're crying. Aren't you something pathetic._

“Hey, Percy?” Annabeth said softly.

Percy shut his eyes and wiped his tears away with his free hand. “Yeah, Annabeth?” he asked, trying his best to keep his voice steady.

“Am I pretty?” she asked.

Percy stopped walking and looked at her. “What?”

She looked a little embarrassed, but she looked straight into his eyes with a searing intensity that made him want to look away from her. “Am I pretty?” she repeated.

“Why are you asking me this?” Percy asked nervously.

“Because— Because you’re my best friend, and I know you won’t lie to me,” she said.

“But why do you even want to know?”

She was quiet for a few seconds and then she said, “Everyone always tells me I’m smart. That’s all I am to anyone. Just smart. My parents only think I’m worth anything because I get good grades. But, just once, I want someone to tell me that I’m pretty, to tell me that I’m more than how smart I am.”

Percy gaped at her and started towards her before he caught himself. “How could you ever think that? How could you ever think you’re worthless if you weren’t smart?” he asked.

When Annabeth just shrugged shyly, he wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. He wanted to tell her that he thought she was the most compassionate and loyal person he knew. He wanted to tell her that she had a great sense of humor and that she made him laugh easier than anyone else could. He wanted to tell her she had a fierceness about her too. Pride. Sometimes her pride frustrated him, but it only made him fall harder for her. And yes, she was also blisteringly intelligent, but that wasn’t _all_ that she was. She was so much more than she knew, and he wanted so badly to tell her, but the words just seemed to vanish when he needed them most.

Instead, he stepped to her and touched her shoulders. She looked up at him, and his heart broke a little when he saw tears glimmering like drops of silver in her eyes.

“Yes, Annabeth, I think you’re beautiful,” he said, trying again not to let his voice waver.

“Really?” she asked, and her voice was so small and vulnerable that it made him want to cry.

“Yes really,” he said. “You’re gorgeous, Annabeth.”

She suddenly grabbed him and buried her face in his sweatshirt and hugged him as tightly as she could. For a second, Percy froze even though they’d hugged a thousand times before. There was something about this moment that was just too intimate. Nevertheless, he brought his arms up slowly and wrapped them around her. Her body shook under the weight of her sobs, but through it all, Annabeth was so quiet that he wouldn’t have known she was crying if he hadn't felt her tears staining his sweatshirt.

Something washed over him and he picked Annabeth up bridal styled walked back to her house. She made a small sound of surprise, but otherwise curled up in his arms. Annabeth looked like she was eight years old again when she’d scraped her knee after falling off a tree she was trying to climb.

_She’s so warm._

“Thank you,“ she said.

“You know I can’t really take you seriously when you’re wearing a banana costume,” Percy teased.

Annabeth scowled and half-heartedly punched his chest. “Asshole,” she muttered. “See if I’m ever nice to you again.”

“Mhm, keep making threats, Bananabeth. I’m real scared.”

“Eat shit.”

Percy smiled and made his way to her house. It was only when he was a few houses away that he heard Annabeth say something so quietly he almost missed it, and when he did, he almost wished he had.

“I love you,” she murmured into his chest, half-asleep, and Percy tried to ignore how much it hurt to hear her say that.

**Author's Note:**

> this is an old fic that has been up on my tumblr, but i'd never posted it on here for some reason. a lot of people liked it on tumblr, so i figured i might as well upload it here and make some minor edits (and fix some typos oof) to it to make it better. hope this hurts like a bitch - that means i did my job right. 
> 
> if you enjoyed, comments are greatly appreciated and motivate me to continue writing. it's hard to keep writing if it feels like no one cares about what you write.


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